Striking a blow against fascism with commentary on current events, finance, economics, politics, music, art, culture and how to deal with our economic lives being bartered away by the elites who have our financial future all figured out: We'll be paying off their debts forever.

If you like what you read here, please make a donation to Pottersville2. Peace to all and let's work to end the wars.

"We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth." - Sydney Schanberg

"The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft, / And gathering swallows twitter in the skies." - John Keats

"It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen ... The world will present itself to you for its unmasking." - Franz Kafka

"“We of the craft are all crazy,” wrote Lord Byron about himself and his fellow poets. “Some are affected by gaiety, others by melancholy, but all are more or less touched.”"

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

"In my lifetime we've gone from Eisenhower to George W. Bush. If this is evolution, I believe within twelve years we'll be voting for plants." - Lewis Black

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." – George Orwell

Senator Frank Church in 1975 chaired the Senate Hearings on the FBI’s Cointelpro operation, which spied upon and attempted to infiltrate, disrupt and discredit the peace movement. . . "if a dictator ever took over, (the NSA) could enable to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back. . . . That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. . . . I don’t want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."

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Conservative Animus

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Conservatism is the theoretical voice of this animus against the agency of the subordinate classes. It provides the most consistent and profound argument as to why the lower orders should not be allowed to exercise their independent will, why they should not be allowed to govern themselves or the polity. Submission is their first duty, agency, the prerogative of the elite.

Current Readers

Politicus USA on GOP Fascism

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The entire GOP apparatus is slipping toward fascism and millions of Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that the Bible none of them have read takes precedence over the Constitution none of them have read.

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Waiting for Grand Dad

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Eco Farm Shitakes, Squash, Kale - Cindi, Nicole & Eddie

Ukraine Disinformation Battle: Little Green Men, Hamsters and the Fog of War

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There has always been a gap in how media on both sides of the former Iron Curtain have reported world events, and it’s growing as the crisis in Ukraine escalates. It has become increasingly difficult to obtain reliable information from any side — west, east, or further east — about what is going on in Eastern Ukraine.
While powerful propaganda machines fill the public space with smoke and mirrors, one of the few facts that can be positively established in Eastern Ukraine is that the body count is steadily growing: a testament of just how easy it is for self-interested foreign powers to start, either intentionally or recklessly, a civil war in the heart of Europe. Continuing coverage is available at this link and this link.

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Red Roots Farm - Kristen & Jason - No Sprays/Delicious Veggies!

Fukushima, Japan Disaster Worsens and Spreads

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While the American reactor industry continues to suck billions of dollars from the public treasury, its allies in the corporate media seem increasingly hesitant to cover the news of post-Fukushima Japan. Continuing coverage is available at this link, this link, and this link.

My Blog Fights Climate Change

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Animal Rescue - Click Everyday!

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Paul Krugman:

I don’t think many people grasp just how raw, how explicit, the corruption of our institutions has become.

Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who, like me, spent most of the Bush years as a voice in the wilderness. And he pointed out something remarkable: although those of us who said the obvious — that the Bush administration was fundamentally monstrous — were ridiculed by all the respectable people at the time, at this point our narrative has become everyone’s narrative.

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Paul Craig Roberts:

_________________ US Media
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"Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda."

"The uniformity of the US media has become much more complete since the days of the cold war. During the 1990s, the US government permitted an unconscionable concentration of print and broadcast media that terminated the independence of the media.

Today the US media is owned by 5 giant companies in which pro-Zionist Jews have disproportionate influence. More importantly, the values of the conglomerates reside in the broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, and the corporations are run by corporate executives — not by journalists — whose eyes are on advertising revenues and the avoidance of controversy that might produce boycotts or upset advertisers and subscribers.

Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home."

_________________ War On Terror
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Roberts asked "Is the War on Terror a Hoax", and claims it has "killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans of millions of Muslims in six countries". Roberts called the attacks "naked aggression" on civilian populations and infrastructure which constitute war crimes.

_________________ Republican Party
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Roberts is seriously dismayed by what he considers the Republican Party's disregard for the U.S. Constitution. He has even voiced his regret that he ever worked for it, avowing that, had he known what it would become, he would never have contributed to the Reagan Revolution.

_________________ American Democracy and Oligarchy
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Roberts has been increasingly critical of what he deems as the lessening of democracy in the U.S.; instead accusing it of being run by oligarchs by stating:

"The west prides itself that it is the standard for the world, that it is a democracy. But nowhere do you see democratic outcomes: not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty.

And that's what the Greeks are in the streets protesting. We see this all over the west. There is no democracy, there are oligarchies, some of these smaller European countries are not even run by their own governments, they are run by Wall Street... There is probably more democracy in China than there is in the west.

Revolution is the only answer... We are confronted with a curious situation. Throughout the west we think we have democracy, we hold ourselves up high, we demonize China, we talk about the mafia state of Russia, we talk about the Arabs and so on, but where is the democracy here?"

_________________ Farewell Speech
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"Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It,"

Roberts effectively announced his journalistic retirement. The article, published at Counterpunch.org, begins:

"There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest."

It proceeds to a bitter chronicle of the demise of American intellectual integrity, particularly that of financial journalists and economists. These have been thoroughly corrupted by monetary inducements to misrepresent and ignore what has been, in effect, the systematic dismantling of the nation's productive life, in the name of globalization.

He holds the members of his own journalistic profession largely responsible for abetting relentless outsourcing of American industry, thereby gutting the American middle class and effectively dooming the nation's future.

He describes his own ostracism from mainstream media access, the consequence of his relentless and unflinching criticism of the demolition process over the past decade. His column ends, "The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off."

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Cirze's World

Liberal?

"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal."

John F. Kennedy, 1960

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Citizen's United

"[T]his Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy."

Sunday, April 5, 2015

I hate (sometimes) at such a late date to add one more essay to my regular mix which is overfull already, but when you run across a source whose writing is so clearly en pointe (even when it's 4 AM), you just have to give in and quote them.

Totally.

Because it's just too fantastic a loss not to.

And it's not too late to take action against these thieves, friends.

From our buddy at the Green Eagle who sees the owners/our rulers (and not obliged noblessedly at all) with startlingly finely-honed vision:

Over the last few months, I fear that I have begun to detect a serious change in Republican behavior. I have noticed, in states like Wisconsin, Kansas and Indiana, less and less concern for any effect of their behavior, except as is either serves the hyper-rich, or contributes to keeping the blinders on the 20% or so of the electorate needed to run grassroots electoral campaigns.

In these states, as well as in the other usual right-wing states, there seems to be a new attitude of open disregard for the disastrous effects that they are causing to the environment, the economy, or anything else, as they rush to either satisfy the inextinguishable greed of hyper-rich psychopaths, or to pass a bundle of deliberately offensive, hate-filled legislation, to satisfy the also inextinguishable ocean of anger that they have synthetically generated to preserve their "base" of people who are willing to work to destroy their own lives, if only it hurts someone else.

This is what I fear: The Republicans, through decades of corrupt behavior, have now reached the point where they simply do not need anything like a majority of voters to support them, in order to capture and retain power. The tsunami of funding coming from no more than a couple hundred people is now greater than the political resources of the entire rest of the country, and other than the "base," which they need to maintain the illusion of democracy, they can simply stop any pretense that they give a damn about the rest of us.

And you can count on this: another few years and they won't need the suckers who go out and work for them any more; the electorate will be so reduced and rigged that those couple of hundred rich guys can do it all on their own.

At that point, perhaps only a couple of electoral cycles away, all pretense can be abandoned, and they can institute the government that has been their clear goal for decades now: one in which not one percent, but a thousandth of one percent, or a ten thousandth of one percent of the American people will run the country for their own private benefit, and the rest of us will be nothing but serfs.

I think they are already at the point where many of them don't even feel the need to hide their intent any more; they are convinced that they have won, and their dreams of an American Fascist oligarchy are just around the corner, with the rest of us helpless to do anything about it.

And they may very well be right.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Come on.

Take the quiz!

Test Your Financial Expertise

Take our financial quiz to test your expertise. Be prepared to be shocked by the correct answers!

Bernie Madoff committed the biggest financial crime in history. He stole $64.8 billion from tens of thousands of innocent people from countries all over the world. But he did not do this alone. In fact, he could not have done this alone.He needed the assistance of a major bank that could service his needs and he needed to be sure that the bank would conceal his criminal activities.

This was a pretty tall order because, ever since the 1970 enactment of the Bank Secrecy Act, American banks have been required to scrutinize their customers’ activities to assure that they are not acting illegally and the banks have been required, by law, to train their personnel to identify illegal conduct and to report it to the federal government.

JPMorgan Chase is one of the biggest banks in the world and you can be sure that they knew about the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act. But they also knew how much money they could make off Madoff’s criminal activities and so they gave Madoff all of the services that were essential for him to carry out the biggest theft in history.

And the folks at JPMorgan Chase looked the other way, every single day for 20 years, as thousands upon thousands of innocent hard-working people lost their life-savings.

And JPMorgan Chase knew exactly who their victims were. There were only 12 people in Madoff’s office who knew what he was doing. And then there were all the people at JPMorgan Chase who knew what he was doing.

They knew that tens of billions of dollars of customer money — belonging to upstate New York union pension funds, belonging to charities, belonging to corporate profit-sharing plans — were sent to Madoff for the purpose of Madoff investing that money for the accounts of the customers.

They knew this because the checks were deposited at JPMorgan Chase.

The people at JPMorgan Chase also saw what Madoff did with the money: he transferred billions of dollars to his co-conspirators, Norman Levy, Jeffry Picower, and others. He transferred billions of dollars overseas.

But he never used any of those billions of dollars to purchase securities. And the people at JPMorgan Chase could see that every single day of the week for 20 years.

And they looked the other way. Despite their legal obligation to know their customer; despite their legal obligation to report suspicious activity to the federal government, the folks at JPMorgan Chase just looked the other way while they profited from Madoff’s crimes. For 20 years, officers of JPMorgan Chase watched as the life savings of tens of thousands of innocent people were stolen.

And what did our government do?

Did it prosecute the individual officers at JPMorgan Chase who were handsomely compensated for keeping Madoff in business for 20 years? No.

Did it put any bankers in jail? No.

Did it take any steps to ensure that the officers at JPMorgan Chase would not do this again? No.

So what did it do?

It allowed JPMorgan Chase to purchase immunity from criminal prosecution of its dishonest officers by paying money to the government and to a fund to compensate some of Madoff’s victims a few pennies on the dollar for their losses. Thus, the victims received practically nothing and the dishonest officers kept all their fat bonuses.

Wouldn’t you like to know why some 18-year-old kid who robs a 7/11 store of $3000 goes to prison, but someone at JPMorgan Chase who helps Madoff steal $64.8 billion just goes to Greenwich in his limousine?

Wouldn’t you like to know why the dishonest officers at JPMorgan Chase, who allowed the Madoff fraud to continue for 20 years under their watch, are still there, ready, willing and able to profit from the dishonesty of other bank customers?

Our criminal justice system is premised on the belief that the only way to discourage financial crimes is to make sure the criminals don’t profit from them. Why are the folks at JPMorgan Chase exempt from that system?

Why would our government, and JPMorgan Chase, tolerate dishonesty at a major financial institution? Why would anyone in his right mind (who is not a criminal) bank with JPMorgan Chase?

We are putting together on this website all of the documents you need to make your own determination on this issue. You don’t need to believe us. Read the documents for yourselves.

Who are we?

We are lawyers dedicated to obtaining an appropriate recovery from JPMorgan Chase for the massive losses of thousands of Madoff customers. But it is not just about money.

We are patriotic Americans and we want to be proud of our country and of our country’s financial institutions. And we want to make sure that other people don’t lose their life savings because the people at JPMorgan Chase like to profit from criminal activity.

Our goal is to make JPMorgan Chase own up to its responsibility for sheltering Madoff for 20 years and change its practices so that neither this type of financial fraud, nor the other acts of financial fraud in which JPMorgan Chase has engaged over the recent past — all documented on this website — can ever happen again.

We want JPMorgan Chase to make a pledge to the American people that it will not shelter criminals and that it has zero tolerance for any bank employee that shelters criminals.

We want JPMorgan Chase to fire all dishonest employees and force them to disgorge all the bonuses they were paid by the bank.

What can you do?

If it bothers you that the government doesn’t put Wall Street criminals in jail, and if you want to do something about it, here are some suggestions:

1. Take your money out of JPMorgan Chase. Find a small community bank that doesn’t go in for the fancy bonuses that the Wall Street crowd commits crimes for.

2. Tell your friends to do the same thing.

3. Make sure your pension funds are not at JPMorgan Chase.

4. Tell your political representatives you are sick and tired of elected officials who are controlled by Wall Street lobbyists. Let’s elect people to public office who are not on the Wall Street dole and who will enforce the laws against Wall Street crooks. If there’s room in prison for someone who holds up a 7/11, how come we don’t put Wall Street bankers in prison when the impact of their crimes is to steal tens of millions of dollars from innocent people?

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Beth and Lily Calmly Monitor Farmers Market Traffic

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Oscar Wilde

"I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

Harold Pinter

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless... while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

Chickenhawks Galore

Peace

"A man of peace is not a pacifist; a man of peace is simply a pool of silence. He pulsates a new kind of energy into the world, he sings a new song. He lives in a totally new way his very way of live is that of grace, that of prayer, that of compassion. Whomsoever he touches, he creates more love-energy. The man of peace is creative. He is not against war, because to be against anything is to be at war. He is not against war; he simply understands why war exists. And out of that understanding he becomes peaceful. Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, understanding, will the war disappear."